President Rouhani and President Sauli Niinistö sat in a session Wednesday morning in Sa’adabad Historical Complex to discuss bilateral ties and the latest developments in the region. Rouhani lamented that relations with this Scandinavian country had been low to which sanctions also contributed and was despite cordial relations in diplomatic circles; “however, nuclear deal brought a dynamism to ties especially now when JCPOA implementation provides net opportunities to be grasped by both sides; the visit by Mr. President would be a turning point in this regard and we hope to see improved trade and business between Tehran and Helsinki,” Rouhani told the meeting.
“Energy, transportation, and mining and industry are active sectors along with environment where we could enjoy Finnish contribution; also we detect proper grounds in ITC, with no less important and lucrative sector of tourism,” Rouhani added.
“Both sides have an interest in citizenship rights, fighting drug trafficking, human rights issues, and extremism and violence, where the EU has shown interested to engage in negotiations with Iran further; the developments in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen also discussed, and we shared the view that political cooperation was necessary to end the violence and establish stability in the region and to initiate humanitarian aid to the affected people,” said the president.
Finnish president for his part was in a general agreement with Rouhani’s remarks on terrorism and drugs; “there is a considerable amount of accord between our position and those voiced by President Rouhani in the majority of issues discussed; I found that Iran had been hosting 3 million Afghan refugees and thus enjoys quite valuable experiences in management of migrant crisis and would provide help to the EU in the matter,” Sauli Niinistö told the meeting.
“We believe refugees crisis should be addressed in terms of its origin and the countries," he said.
He closed his remarks by expressing gratitude for Mr. Rouhani’s lavish welcome in the historical palace of Sa’adabad.
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